Infants and other incontinent individuals wear absorbent articles such as diapers to receive and contain urine and other body exudates. Absorbent articles function both to contain discharged materials and to isolate the materials from the body of the wearer and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable absorbent articles having many different basic designs are known to the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,152, entitled "Disposable Diaper" issued to Duncan and Baker on Jan. 31, 1967 describes a conventional disposable diaper which has achieved worldwide acceptance and commercial success. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,860 entitled "Detachable Two Piece Absorbent Garment" issued to Gipson et al. on Oct. 23, 1990 discloses a belted absorbent article. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,433 entitled "Elasticized Disposable Training Pant And Method of Making The Same" issued to Hasse et al. on Sep. 21, 1993 discloses a unitary disposable absorbent article that can be used as a training pant. However, the absorbent articles currently available to the public fail to provide many of the benefits that could be achieved by absorbent articles having a fastening system that allows the user to choose the most desirable diaper configuration for each particular use.
In the market today, the consumer has a number of different basic diaper designs to choose from depending on the desired options, comfort and cost, including conventional diapers, belted diapers, and "pull-up" type training pants. Conventional diaper designs are generally the least expensive type of absorbent article to produce and are generally acceptable for use on small babies and persons who are sick or otherwise confined to a bed. A conventional diaper is fitted to the wearer by first placing a portion of the diaper under the wearer (generally, the back portion of the diaper is placed under the buttocks and rear waist of the wearer) and then pulling the remainder of the diaper through the wearer's legs. The rear portion of the diaper is then attached to the front portion of the diaper on each side of the wearer. However, such conventional configurations tend to be very difficult to use when the wearer refuses to remain still throughout the period of application. Further, adult wearers often find the conventional type absorbent articles difficult to put on themselves without assistance. Further, the conventional absorbent article configuration lacks an easy method for inspection without complete removal of the absorbent article.
Belted diapers have been introduced to overcome some of the problems with the conventional type diapers. Belted diapers are generally fitted to the wearer by positioning the diaper such that the belt can be fastened about the waist of the wearer with the remainder of the diaper hanging down between the legs of the wearer. The part of the diaper hanging down from the waist is then pulled through the legs of the wearer and attached to the belted part of the diaper near the waist. Thus, a belted diaper can be fitted to standing wearers and can be easily inspected for soiling without completely removing the diaper. Further, adult wearers often find the belted absorbent article designs easier to put on without assistance. However, belted diapers are generally more costly than conventional diapers and some wearers prefer the conventional design to the belted design.
Another popular diaper design has been the "pull-up" type, used in training pants and incontinence briefs. The "pull-up" design allows the wearer to pull the absorbent article on as pants and does not require any of the fastening steps of the conventional or belted type absorbent article designs. Although this feature is desirable for many adult users and children in their toilet training stage, the "pull-up" design is impractical for many users. Current "pull-up" designs lack any features that allow the diaper to be checked for soiling without removal of the diaper and the wearer's outer clothing.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide an absorbent article having a fastening system that allows the user to construct and fasten the absorbent article in different configurations.
Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to provide an absorbent article having a refastenable fastening system designed to allow the absorbent article to be constructed in a conventional, belted or "pull-up" configuration.
These and other objectives of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.